Mark Tuohey – Director Mayor’s Office of Legal Counsel

“I’m waiting, Andy . . .for the day in a few years not too long when my grandchildren and I will jump on a ferry in Georgetown take it down to the stadium, and before we go into the stadium, on a saturday afternoon game, we’re going to change into our bathing suits, dive into the Anacostia, swim and have lunch that’s what I’m looking forward to.” ~Mark Tuohey

Ernie Baur, Wendy Rieger, Mark Tuohey and Lucille Baur

Mark Tuohey – a name not well known to the average citizen of Our Town, but he is a key player in the law of some of the most visible trials in local politics over the past 30 years and is one of the people responsible for bringing baseball back to Washington.You’ve probably seen Mark Tuohey sitting in the second row in box seats at the Nats games, in the “Halls of Justice” for some of the city’s more interesting cases or sitting next to the Mayor of our Nation’s Capital, he’s the venable Mark Tuohey and he’s Andy’s guest on Our Town.

Born in Rochester, NY, the home of America’s most recognizable brands like Kodak, Xerox and Wegman’s, Mark Tuohey is the son of an FBI agent. He attended Bonaventure and went to Fordham University Law School. In talking to Andy O during this interview, he shared some incredible stories about growing up in upper state New York, sitting next to America’s most famous coach Vince Lombardi and prosecuting such cases as the Columbus Day Bombing Case, White Water, Enron and representing Congressman Bob Ney in the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal. He’s been referred to as one of Washington’s “go-to” white collar defense attorneys.

Andy asked Mark Tuohey about current projects he’s working on for Our Town in the Mayor’s office. Mark shared a few thoughtful ideas about RFK stadium – as a great location for the Washington Redskins to return to Washington, bringing to mind the fact that RFK is the very best place to serve the tri-state area. Other places like Sterling or FedExpress Field don’t satisfy the criteria as well as RFK has done. Andy and Mark both agreed that rebuilding the RFK complex is a fantastic idea. The old St. Elizabeth’s site is now going to be the home court facility of the Washington Mystic’s and a practice facility for the Wizards.

The soccer stadium is also in the works for completion in the next couple of years. Once completed, Tuohey suggests that the city will see the improvement and development of the community just like the Lerners and the Pollins did with the Nationals’ Stadium and the Verizon Center, which will also rejuvenate the Anacostia area in and around the Southeast and Southwest waterfront. Mark gives most of the credit to Mayor Tony Williams who was committed to seeing an area of the city transform.

Most recently Mark Tuohey talked to Andy about his decision not to pursue his run for DC Attorney General but dropped out of the race to endorse his friend Karl Racine who he felt was a better fit for the position. Shortly after that he was hired by newly elected Muriel Bowser as her General Counsel.

Andy and Mark turned to personal matters acknowledging that Mark has been married to his wife Marty for close to 50 years and they have three boys who have started a foundation using sports to bring young folks between the ages of 8 and 18 together using the notion that if you learn to play together you can live together. It’s a program that is now all over the world in Israel, South Africa, Northern Ireland and on the West Bank and Cyprus. He’s very proud of his boys.

We hope you have enjoyed this all new episode of Our Town with Andy Ockershausen and Mark Tuohey. We invite you to listen to each new episode of Our Town as they roll out over the next several months. You can subscribe to the Our Town podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or if you complete the subscription form in the sidebar to the right, you will be notified by email when the next episode appears here on the website.